AboutCreditwrench Expertise Debt Collections law, Fair Debt Collection Practices Act (FDCPA), Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), federal law, how to properly answer court summons for collection cases, how to prepare federal cases against debt collectors, how to deal with debt collection phone calls.
Experience I've been an active consumer advocate for more than 40 years and have helped hundreds of people win cases against debt collectors as well as helping them defeat demands for summary judgment lodged against them by banks, debt collectors and defeat mortgage foreclosures and keep their homes.
Education/Credentials Paralegal courses for the most part. I have been teaching people how to deal with judgments, mortgage foreclosures and other such problems both on and off the internet for many, many years. I am a Richard Cornforth information provider ever since 2000 and worked with many other organizations and causes since 1980. I was Oklahoma State Chairman for the nationwide drive to defeat the Constitutional Convention which was proposed by various factions within our federal government such as the Council of State Governments and the National Organization of State Governors who were working hard to organize a Constitutional Convention to be held in 1995 for the purpose of rewriting our American Constitution to be more acceptable to the United Nations. I worked with Senator Charles Duke of Colorado and Senator Don Rogers of California and many others across the nation to keep them from getting the number of delegate states required to lawfully hold a Con-Con and we were successful. I have worked with many other legislative issues in Oklahoma and have always been very successful.
Question QUESTION: Hello, Recently I received a letter from a debt collection agency because I served as a co-signer for a relative. I disputed the debt and requested that they send verification. They did send verification, although the charges look really questionable. I'm in a tough situation because the relative didn't do a walkthough, so there's no real evidence to dispute their accusations. I have three questions: 1) do I need to follow up with the debt collection agency if I want to discuss the charges or should I call the property management company? 2)I live in California, so can and will this go on my credit report, do they need a judgement from a court? and 3)How long do I have before it goes on my credit report?
ANSWER: It might very well be there now. Have you checked that out yet? If the apartment management has the ability to do credit reports then they can put it on if not the collection agency probably will sooner or later. You will need to deal with the debt collection agency and the only way you are going to get that off your credit report is to learn how to catch them in violations of FDCPA and then sue them in federal court. That will probably get the job done and end up paying you for your time and trouble of filing the suit against them. You won't even need a lawyer to do it. You can easily learn how to do that. My students do it all the time.
QUESTION: thank you for your quick response. Just going for clarification though. I checked my credit reports yesterday and there was nothing there. Is there anything that I can do to not get this collection put on my report other than paying the debt? I just received the verification information from them last week, so does the law allow any time span before they put the negative mark on there? Thanks again for the time and expertise.
Answer Other than paying the debt? Let me assure you that if you pay the debt it will go on your credit report as a paid collection. That will hurt your credit a great deal. An upaid collection mark on your credit reports will affect it by differing amounts depending on what your fico score is now. If you have excellent credit somewhere above 700 that one negative isn't going to make a significant difference. If you already have poor credit then one more isn't going to make much difference either. Scores between those ranges will be hurt more depending on how low the score is now. What you need to do is learn all the different ways a debt collector can violate the law and then when you have a few on them sue him in federal court. That is fairly easy to do and you don't even need a lawyer to do it.
Ever hear of the rattlesnake method of credit repair? It works this way. Bite the debt collector a good one and he will run away as fast as he can. He will even pay you to go away and leave him alone.
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